


Surprise Me

by Galadriel1010



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Complicated Relationships, Confessions, Good Parent Maryse Lightwood, Post-Episode: s02e10 By The Light Of Dawn, magnus has been around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 22:17:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11000133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galadriel1010/pseuds/Galadriel1010
Summary: Maryse might be the last person Magnus wants to see after he's just told her son he loves him, but in the end she might turn out to be exactly who he needed to see.





	Surprise Me

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't read the books, but I love the hints of backstory we get in Shadowhunters far more than the plot of the books that they contradict, so this is based on scraps and my deep and total love for Nicola Correia Damude and need for a badass Latina matriarch.

Magnus stopped at the sound of his name. His lips still tingled with Alec's kiss, and his heart had been hammering like it wanted to escape and fly back to the gorgeous nephilim. Now it sank, because nothing could stay good for long right now. Of all the people he wanted to be calling his name, Maryse Lightwood was rock bottom. But she was Alec's mother, and might even be the Head of the Institute again - it was so hard to keep track these days - so he gave himself a second or two to school his expression into one that was polite enough and turned on his heel to face her. "Maryse," he greeted her.

"Thank the Angel," she breathed, still striding towards him, and he blinked. "Have you seen Alec?"

He nodded and gestured over his shoulder with a curl of his fingers. "He's gone to the Ops Centre to receive the last patrol groups."

She waved that away as she arrived, like it was smoke drifting between them, and, after a moment's hesitation, rested a hand on her hip. "As long as you've seen him. He's been nearly frantic. Jace will be relieved, too." She frowned and glanced away. "What about... Maggie? Alec said there was a warlock child here."

"She's... With a friend of mine..."

"Safe?" 

Maryse was looking at him again, searching his face for something. Whatever she was looking for, she was likely to find only complete bafflement. "Yes. She doesn't really understand what happened here. I hope she never does." He held up his hand. "Maryse, please forgive me if I'm being particularly obtuse here, but..." Try as he might, he couldn't find a tactful way to phrase 'I thought we hated each other, and this level of politeness is not something I am emotionally prepared for after what has been a very trying night' so he settled for, "To what do I owe this honour?"

She sighed and leaned against the wall, finally bringing to mind Maryse Trueblood, who had once challenged him on the inequality of the Accords and tried to bribe him to smuggle vodka into the Academy for her. It had been easier to forget that the matriarch of the Circle and then the New York Institute had been that young woman before Valentine Morgenstern got his claws into her. A glance from under her lashes showed that she remembered the earlier days just as well as he did. "You have every reason to doubt me. But... You didn't see him this morning, Magnus. I have seen my son bleeding, with broken limbs and exhaustion so bone-deep I felt like if he went to sleep he might never wake up. But I would rather see all of those than ever see him that frightened again." She rested her head back against the wall with her hands pressed flat against it, just like he'd seen Alec do so often. "I am so proud of him. He kept going, kept us together, even whilst he was falling apart."

"He's a very good man," Magnus murmured. He leaned back against the wall opposite her and looked up at the ceiling. "It's why I love him so much."

Silence settled between them after that, and then she chuckled. When he dragged his gaze away from the ceiling, she was watching him. "Being a Shadowhunter parent means knowing that your children are born to suffer. Sometimes... Sometimes, when Alec and Izzy were babies and the Circle was rising, I felt like the most selfish person in the world for bringing them into it. Isabelle especially. It was hard to believe that they could ever be happy in this... Shithole."

Hearing Maryse swearing was shocking in a way it shouldn't have been. Not compared to what it meant. But it was a shock and his gut churned. He met her gaze with a level glare. "The greatest gift a parent can give is a better world."

"I thought I was. I thought we were." Her eyes drifted away again, into the past. "We were fierce and passionate and so determined to do things differently. And then, gradually, things changed. You know what they say about frogs in hot water?"

"I was there, Maryse," he reminded her. "I had such high hopes for all of you."

"Me too. That's why it was so hard to accept it. Until it was too late." She folded her arms across her chest. "Alec doesn't understand it, and I hope he never does. They're just like I was at that age."

Magnus laughed, despite himself. "Hardly, Maryse. Alec doesn't have your taste for the finer things in bottles."

She grinned back at him. "Izzy more than makes up for that, though." They chuckled and then Maryse sighed. "Oh, Izzy. Will she be alright, Magnus?"

"She's as tough as her mother," he reassured her, smiling still. "I believe the phrase the kids are using these days is Teflon. Nothing sticks to her."

"I hope so." She looked back towards the Ops Centre, where two of her children were in the eye of a storm of activity and anger. "So many deaths. Thirty two Shadowhunters, thirteen werewolves and twenty Seelies, at current count. And that's just tonight. And Ragnor." Her shoulders stiffened into position, like straightening her spine could give her the resolve she needed. "All he ever wanted to do was protect his students."

"Do you know, he really didn't want to take that job?" Magnus laughed. "I forget, sometimes, how many Shadowhunters know him."

"We're dying out. Of our generation, there's only a few left."

Wherever she was going with that, she was interrupted by Alec, tall, dark and suspicious in the entrance to the corridor. "Mom, Magnus?" He looked Magnus over and his frown deepened when Magnus gave him a reassuring smile. "Everything okay?"

"Fine, Alexander." Magnus gestured to Maryse. "We were just reminiscing about the time I smuggled Vodka into the academy for one of your mother's wilder parties."

She laughed and shook her head. "Don't listen to him."

"Ah, of course." He winked. "Party implies that she would share it."

Alec looked completely baffled. "Wait... You two know each other?"

"Know each other?" Maryse grinned and rested her hand on Alec's cheek. "Darling, when I was a bit younger than you are, I had a crush on Magnus nearly as bad as yours."


End file.
